Grateful Dead Cheese Factory 1966

This swirling homage to art nouveau organic styling announced an event to celebrate the first anniversary of the Grateful Dead. A year earlier the band had changed their name from the Warlocks and here they were joined by Andrew Staples, a garage band from Davis.  The Old Cheese Factory, at 517 Washington near Ghirardelli Square was only used just this once as a concert venue. No setlist appears to have survived.

According to poster historian Pete Howard, this show took place just days after Jerry Garcia had returned from LA where he had been flown down to help the Jefferson Airplane put finishing touches on Surrealistic Pillow. Jerry wound up playing lead guitar on several of the songs and rearranged “Somebody to Love” into the version we know today.

Mouse and Kelley worked together on their posters, actually sharing a large drawing table as Mouse is right-handed and Kelley was left handed. Typically, Kelley selected the image and laid out the poster while Mouse did the illustration. And according to Rusty Goldman, the people pictured on the poster are Dr. George Auger, the Cardiff, who was the tallest man on earth at the time with his family. The Art Nouveau style was both organic and psychedelic in nature and was often used by Mouse, Kelley and fellow Big Five poster artist Rick Griffin.